1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to wash buckets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wash buckets are an old technology, yet one that has seen continuous innovation, much of it in the last few decades. As soon as humans learned how to make vessels for holding liquids out of clay or other simple materials, some of these vessels were probably used to hold water for washing various objects. Over time, humans developed specialized vessels for holding wash water, such as wash basins for washing ones hands and face, or a sink for washing dishes. Wash basins were shaped as shallow bowls to allow a minimum volume of water to be used for effective cleaning of face and hands and to allow for easy cleaning. Dish sinks were shaped as wide, steep walled wells to allow a maximum volume of dishes to be immersed in a minimal volume of water. Wash buckets were shaped as narrow, step-walled vessels with an open top to allow water to be carried easily to a place where something needed to be washed, and then serve as a handy repository of water close to the task. To keep the water close at hand, a bucket is more efficient if it is self-supporting. Therefore, most buckets are flat bottomed, though some have rounded bottoms with legs to maintain them upright.
The evolution of the wash bucket continued through the years. Over time, various features were added to the basic bucket form. Spouts of various types were added to make it easier to pour liquids out of the vessel. Handles of various types were added by early inventors to make the vessels easier to carry and more portable. Inventors created different types of handles including rigid handles attached to the side of a bucket, rope handles and bail handles. Inventors found new materials with which to make buckets. Buckets of fire hardened clay were easy to make, but were relatively fragile compared to other materials. Wood is a more robust material. Eventually, a wooden bucket was made from slabs of wood with one slab forming the bottom of the bucket and other slabs forming the sidewalls of the bucket, held together by rope or twine. Later, when metals became less rare, the ropes holding the bucket together were replaced by metal bands. Eventually, as metals became even more common, entire buckets were made out of metal.
After metal buckets became common, inventors discovered it was practical to add wheels to a bucket. After wheels on buckets were common, other inventors realized that the narrow and deep shape of a bucket previously designed for efficient carrying by a human could be adapted into shapes more convenient for pushing along a flat, even surface. The classic mop bucket was invented with a relatively larger bottom and shorter side walls. The elongated bottom of a bucket allowed a mop to be placed with the head in the bottom of the bucket near one end with the mop handle resting against the top of the side wall on the opposite end. This allowed a person to use the mop handle to transmit force to the mop bucket inducing the mop bucket to move along a flat surface on its wheels. In time, inventors added various types of mop ringers to the bucket, some detachable and some integral. Some ringers use of rollers to press water out of the mop, others used flat plates.
Even in recent years, inventors have continued to come up with new innovations for wash buckets. Inventors have added gratings to the bottom of a wash bucket to allow dirt and other particulates to fall out of the wash water and through the grating, allowing a wash pad or mitt to be rinsed out in the wash water without contacting dirt and particles from previous rinsings of the wash pad or mitt. This bucket with a grating bottom is more effective than previous wash buckets where the wash pad or mitt would come into contact with dirt and particulates from previous rinsings of the wash pad or mitt. This was an important innovation for washing surfaces sensitive to scratching by particulate matter adhering to the wash pad or mitt. Another recent innovation of wash buckets, patented as U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,441 on Nov. 16, 1999 separates a wash bucket into two parts. One for immersing a mop in clean, unused wash liquid and the other compartment with a ringer for squeezing used, dirty washing liquid from the mop. This invention prevents the dirty wash liquid from mixing with the clean, unused wash liquid. Another recent innovation in wash bucket design has been to replace markings on the side of the bucket that indicate the volume of liquid in the bucket with volume indicating markings on an angled ledge inside the bucket. This allows a person to read the bucket volume while standing above the bucket instead of squatting down or lifting the bucket to read the volume.
Despite all the recent innovation in wash bucket design, current wash buckets do not have any mechanism for insuring that water and detergent are mixed in the proper amounts. Liquid detergents are commonly packaged in bottles with no easy means for measuring the amount of detergent dispensed. An ordinary multi-purpose measuring cup could be used to measure the amount of detergent, however, such a cup is often not conveniently located when a wash bucket user dispenses detergent. Even if the user has a measuring cup to measure the amount of detergent dispensed and the wash bucket has markings indicating the volume of water in the bucket, the user may not remember the proper amount of detergent to add for a particular volume of wash water. Even if the user remembers a desirable ratio of detergent to wash water, calculating the amount of detergent for different volumes of water requires tedious fractional math. The result is that commonly a person filling a wash bucket with a mixture of water and detergent will not measure the amount of detergent properly but will “guestimate” the amount of detergent to use. Too much or too little detergent may end up being used, with inconsistent results.